"dabble" meaning in All languages combined

See dabble on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈdæb(ə)l/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈdæbəl/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-dabble.ogg [Australia], LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dabble.wav [Southern-England], en-us-dabble.ogg [General-American] Forms: dabbles [plural]
Rhymes: -æbəl Etymology: From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|dable}} dable, {{glossary|frequentative}} frequentative, {{suffix|en|dab|le|pos2=frequentative suffix}} dab + -le (frequentative suffix), {{der|en|dum|dabbelen||to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble}} Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”), {{cog|is|dafla||to dabble}} Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} dabble (plural dabbles)
  1. A spattering or sprinkling of a liquid.
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-noun-CWN9vj02
  2. An act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc. Translations (act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc.): chapoteo (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-noun-G02ZU2kJ Disambiguation of 'act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc.': 1 93 6
  3. An act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way. Translations (act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way): escarceo (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-noun-6XaQPvt9 Disambiguation of 'act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way': 0 5 95
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: double dabble

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˈdæb(ə)l/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈdæbəl/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-dabble.ogg [Australia], LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dabble.wav [Southern-England], en-us-dabble.ogg [General-American] Forms: dabbles [present, singular, third-person], dabbling [participle, present], dabbled [participle, past], dabbled [past]
Rhymes: -æbəl Etymology: From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|dable}} dable, {{glossary|frequentative}} frequentative, {{suffix|en|dab|le|pos2=frequentative suffix}} dab + -le (frequentative suffix), {{der|en|dum|dabbelen||to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble}} Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”), {{cog|is|dafla||to dabble}} Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”) Head templates: {{en-verb}} dabble (third-person singular simple present dabbles, present participle dabbling, simple past and past participle dabbled)
  1. (transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble. Tags: transitive Synonyms (to make slightly wet or soiled): bespatter, besprinkle, spatter Translations (to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid): pocákat (Czech), pošplíchat (Czech), kastella (Finnish), megnedvesít (Hungarian), benedvesít (Hungarian), meglocsol (Hungarian), bespriccel (Hungarian), megmártogat (Hungarian), babrać [imperfective] (Polish), ubabrać [perfective] (Polish), zbabrać [perfective] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_bedabble_or_spatter Categories (other): English links with manual fragments, English links with redundant alt parameters, English links with redundant wikilinks, English terms suffixed with -le Disambiguation of English links with manual fragments: 5 5 7 19 23 26 6 9 Disambiguation of English links with redundant alt parameters: 3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6 Disambiguation of English links with redundant wikilinks: 3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -le: 7 7 9 18 20 21 6 10 Disambiguation of 'to make slightly wet or soiled': 83 8 5 2 2 Disambiguation of 'to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid': 90 5 3 1 1
  2. (transitive) To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow water; to paddle. Tags: transitive Translations (to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.): пляскам (pljaskam) (Bulgarian), пръскам (prǎskam) (Bulgarian), 玩水 (wánshuǐ) (Chinese Mandarin), 濺濕 (Chinese Mandarin), 溅湿 (jiànshī) (Chinese Mandarin), cákat (Czech), šplíchat (Czech), dompelen (Dutch), spetteren (Dutch), pärskiä (Finnish), pärskyttää (Finnish), barboter (French), humedecer (Galician), platschen (German), pancsol (Hungarian), belepancsol (Hungarian), pacsál (Hungarian), sguazzare (Italian), ばちゃばちゃさせる (bachabacha saseru) (Japanese), umedecer (Portuguese), плеска́ться (pleskátʹsja) (Russian), brčkati (Serbo-Croatian), chapotear (Spanish), sıçratmak (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_splash_or_paddle Categories (other): English links with manual fragments, English links with redundant alt parameters, English links with redundant wikilinks, English terms suffixed with -le Disambiguation of English links with manual fragments: 5 5 7 19 23 26 6 9 Disambiguation of English links with redundant alt parameters: 3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6 Disambiguation of English links with redundant wikilinks: 3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -le: 7 7 9 18 20 21 6 10 Disambiguation of 'to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.': 3 90 3 2 2
  3. (intransitive, of waterfowl) To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water. Tags: intransitive Categories (topical): Ornithology Translations (of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving): grondelen (Dutch), gründeln (German)
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-verb-hTcI5Q-t Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English links with manual fragments, English links with redundant alt parameters, English links with redundant wikilinks, English terms suffixed with -le Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 2 2 4 26 23 34 3 6 Disambiguation of English links with manual fragments: 5 5 7 19 23 26 6 9 Disambiguation of English links with redundant alt parameters: 3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6 Disambiguation of English links with redundant wikilinks: 3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -le: 7 7 9 18 20 21 6 10 Disambiguation of 'of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving': 11 11 75 1 2
  4. (intransitive, figuratively) To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way. Tags: figuratively, intransitive Translations (to participate in a casual or superficial way): меся се (mesja se) (Bulgarian), бъркам се (bǎrkam se) (Bulgarian), 涉足 (shèzú) (Chinese Mandarin), 涉獵 (Chinese Mandarin), 涉猎 (shèliè) (Chinese Mandarin), liefhebberen (Dutch), als liefhebberij hebben (Dutch), puuhastella (Finnish), harrastella (Finnish), ein wenig befassen (German), dilettieren (German), belekontárkodik (Hungarian), beleszagol (Hungarian), amatőrködik (Hungarian), belekap (Hungarian), belekóstol (Hungarian), -kodik (Hungarian), -kedik (Hungarian), -ködik (Hungarian), -gat (Hungarian), -get (Hungarian), dilettarsi (Italian), occuparsi a tempo perso (Italian), fuske (english: to cheat) (Norwegian Bokmål), занима́ться пове́рхностно (zanimátʹsja povérxnostno) (Russian), aventurarse en (Spanish), incursionar (Spanish), takılmak [slang] (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_participate_casually Disambiguation of 'to participate in a casual or superficial way': 2 13 3 75 7
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with. Tags: intransitive, obsolete
    Sense id: en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_interfere_or_tamper_with
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: bedabble, dabbler, dabblesome, dabbling, dabbling duck Related terms: dilettante, dribble

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for dabble meaning in All languages combined (31.9kB)

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "bedabble"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dabbler"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dabblesome"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dabbling"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dabbling duck"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dable"
      },
      "expansion": "dable",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "frequentative"
      },
      "expansion": "frequentative",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dab",
        "3": "le",
        "pos2": "frequentative suffix"
      },
      "expansion": "dab + -le (frequentative suffix)",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dum",
        "3": "dabbelen",
        "4": "",
        "5": "to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "is",
        "2": "dafla",
        "3": "",
        "4": "to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dabbles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dabbling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dabbled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dabbled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dabble (third-person singular simple present dabbles, present participle dabbling, simple past and past participle dabbled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "dab‧ble"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dilettante"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "dribble"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "5 5 7 19 23 26 6 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [
            "Links with manual fragments",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant alt parameters",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant alt parameters",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 9 18 20 21 6 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -le",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1783, George Armstrong, “Rules to be Observed in the Nursing of Children: With a Particular View to Those who are Brought Up by Hand”, in An Account of the Diseases Most Incident to Children, from the Birth till the Age of Puberty; with a Successful Method of Treating Them. To which is Added, an Essay on Nursing: With a Particular View to Children who are Brought Up by Hand. Also a Short General Account of the Dispensary for the Infant Poor, new edition, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 176",
          "text": "If ſhe [the nurse] obſerves that the ſkin ſeems any where to be chafed, after dabbling the part very well with cold water, and drying it gently with a fine cloth, let her apply ſome common powder to it, by means of a ſoft puff.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_bedabble_or_spatter",
      "links": [
        [
          "slightly",
          "slightly"
        ],
        [
          "wet",
          "wet#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "soiled",
          "soiled#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "spattering",
          "spatter#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "sprinkling",
          "sprinkle#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "liquid",
          "liquid#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "mud",
          "mud"
        ],
        [
          "paint",
          "paint#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "bedabble",
          "bedabble"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to bedabble or spatter"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "83 8 5 2 2",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled",
          "word": "bespatter"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "83 8 5 2 2",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled",
          "word": "besprinkle"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "83 8 5 2 2",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled",
          "word": "spatter"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "pocákat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "pošplíchat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "kastella"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "megnedvesít"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "benedvesít"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "meglocsol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "bespriccel"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "word": "megmártogat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "babrać"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "ubabrać"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 5 3 1 1",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "zbabrać"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "5 5 7 19 23 26 6 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [
            "Links with manual fragments",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant alt parameters",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant alt parameters",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 9 18 20 21 6 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -le",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The children sat on the dock and dabbled their feet in the water.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow water; to paddle."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_splash_or_paddle",
      "links": [
        [
          "splashing",
          "splashing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "body part",
          "body part"
        ],
        [
          "bill",
          "bill#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "limb",
          "limb"
        ],
        [
          "playfully",
          "playfully"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "shallow",
          "shallow#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "paddle",
          "paddle#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow water; to paddle."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to splash or paddle"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "pljaskam",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "пляскам"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "prǎskam",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "пръскам"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "wánshuǐ",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "玩水"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "濺濕"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "jiànshī",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "溅湿"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "cákat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "šplíchat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "dompelen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "spetteren"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "pärskiä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "pärskyttää"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "barboter"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "humedecer"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "platschen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "pancsol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "belepancsol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "pacsál"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "sguazzare"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "bachabacha saseru",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "ばちゃばちゃさせる"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "umedecer"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "pleskátʹsja",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "плеска́ться"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "brčkati"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "chapotear"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 90 3 2 2",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "sıçratmak"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ornithology",
          "orig": "en:Ornithology",
          "parents": [
            "Zoology",
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "2 2 4 26 23 34 3 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 5 7 19 23 26 6 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [
            "Links with manual fragments",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant alt parameters",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant alt parameters",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 3 6 19 32 26 5 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 7 9 18 20 21 6 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -le",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, [Maurice Burton; Robert Burton], “Mallard”, in International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, volumes 11 (LEO–MAR), Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish, page 1525",
          "text": "When a duck dabbles its bill in mud, it is using the lamellae (transverse plates) on the inner edges of its bill as a highly efficient filter. As the duck dabbles, its tongue acts as a piston, sucking water or mud into the mouth and driving it out again. Only the edible particles are left behind on the lamellae.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-verb-hTcI5Q-t",
      "links": [
        [
          "feed",
          "feed"
        ],
        [
          "diving",
          "dive"
        ],
        [
          "submerging",
          "submerge"
        ],
        [
          "head",
          "head"
        ],
        [
          "neck",
          "neck"
        ],
        [
          "tip",
          "tip"
        ],
        [
          "tail",
          "tail"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, of waterfowl) To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of waterfowl"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "11 11 75 1 2",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving",
          "word": "grondelen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "11 11 75 1 2",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving",
          "word": "gründeln"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She’s an actress by trade, but has been known to dabble in poetry.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1692 April 4, Richard Bentley, “Matter and Motion Cannot Think: Or, A Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul. The Second Sermon Preached April 4. 1692.”, in The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism Demonstrated from the Advantage and Pleasure of a Religious Life, the Faculties of Humane Souls, the Structure of Animate Bodies, & the Origin and Frame of the World: In Eight Sermons Preached at the Lecture Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire; in the First Year, MDCXCII [1692], 4th corr. edition, London: Printed by J. H. for H. Mortlock at the Phœnix in St. Paul's Church-Yard, published 1699, →OCLC, page 63",
          "text": "And now that I have finiſhed all the parts, which I propoſed to diſcourſe of; I will conclude all with a ſhort application to the Atheiſts. And I would adviſe them as a Friend, to leave off this dabbling and ſmattering in Philoſophy, this ſhuffling and cutting with Atoms.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1793 July, “[Monthly Catalogue, for July, 1793.] Art. 57. Sprigs of Laurel: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts. As Performed, with Universal Applause, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Written by John O’Keeffe. 8vo. 1s. Longman. 1793.”, in [Ralph Griffiths], editor, The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XI, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, in Pall Mall, →OCLC, page 347",
          "text": "The politics too, for it [the opera] dabbles in politics, are evidently not written from the heart, for the ſentiments contradict each other, but from the paultry motive of catching applauſe, be it juſt or unjuſt, moral or immoral.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Paula Marantz Cohen, “Introduction”, in Alfred Hitchcock: The Legacy of Victorianism, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, page 1",
          "text": "His [Alfred Hitchcock's] work is a mirror of cinematic development: from silent to sound, from black and white to color, from the shoestring productions of his early London years to the expensive vehicles of his Hollywood period. In the process, he dabbled in technical innovations such as 3-D and VistaVision, experimened in special effects and editing techniques, and developed an extensive repertoire of original camera setups and shots.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_participate_casually",
      "links": [
        [
          "participate",
          "participate"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, figuratively) To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to participate casually"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "mesja se",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "меся се"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "bǎrkam se",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "бъркам се"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shèzú",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "涉足"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "涉獵"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shèliè",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "涉猎"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "liefhebberen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "als liefhebberij hebben"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "puuhastella"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "harrastella"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "ein wenig befassen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "dilettieren"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "belekontárkodik"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "beleszagol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "note": "felületesen/amatőr módjára csinál/végez/űz/foglalkozik",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "amatőrködik"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "belekap"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "belekóstol"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "-kodik"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "-kedik"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "-ködik"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "-gat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "-get"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "dilettarsi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "occuparsi a tempo perso"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "nb",
          "english": "to cheat",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "fuske"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "zanimátʹsja povérxnostno",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "занима́ться пове́рхностно"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "aventurarse en"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "incursionar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 13 3 75 7",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
          "tags": [
            "slang"
          ],
          "word": "takılmak"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1731, Simon Scriblerus [pseudonym], Whistoneutes: Or, Remarks on Mr. [William] Whiston’s Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Samuel Clarke, &c., London: Printed for T. Warner, at the Black-Boy in Pater-Noster-Row, →OCLC, pages 3–4",
          "text": "[A fellow of a college in Cambridge] freely confeſs'd, that he had for many Years been ranſacking Antiquity, in order to be the Author of ſome new Heresy or Opinion; and that after all his Searches, he cou'd think or fix upon nothing, but what on Fool or another had been meddling and dabbling with.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-verb-en:to_interfere_or_tamper_with",
      "links": [
        [
          "interfere",
          "interfere"
        ],
        [
          "meddle",
          "meddle#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "tamper",
          "tamper#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, obsolete) To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to interfere or tamper with"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæb(ə)l/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæbəl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æbəl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg/En-au-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dabble.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg/En-us-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dabble"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "double dabble"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dable"
      },
      "expansion": "dable",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "frequentative"
      },
      "expansion": "frequentative",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dab",
        "3": "le",
        "pos2": "frequentative suffix"
      },
      "expansion": "dab + -le (frequentative suffix)",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dum",
        "3": "dabbelen",
        "4": "",
        "5": "to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "is",
        "2": "dafla",
        "3": "",
        "4": "to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dabbles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dabble (plural dabbles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "dab‧ble"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1858 May 22, “Fine Arts. Royal Academy.”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama, number 1595, London: Printed by James Holmes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane, published at the office, 20, Wellington Street North, Strand, by J[ohn] Francis. [...], →OCLC, page 663, column 3",
          "text": "Sir W. Rose has works that bear painful evidence of failing health; indeed, his group of the Duc et Duchesse d'Aumale (705), with the Prince de Condé and the Duc de Guise, is quite unfinished and even blotted. The face of the Duke is refined, but weak; the colour is pale, and the background only a dabble of unarranged and undrilled touches.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1862 February, George Augustus [Henry] Sala, “The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous; a Narrative in Plain English, […] Chapter the Fourth. My Grandmother Dies, and I am Left Alone, without So Much as a Name.”, in George Augustus Sala, editor, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume IV, London: Office of \"Temple Bar,\" 122 Fleet Street; Ward and Lock, 158 Fleet Street; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers, →OCLC, page 304",
          "text": "And then methought my dream changed, and two Great Giants with heading-axes came striding over the bed, […] And I woke up with my hair all in a dabble with the night-dews, with my Grandmother's voice ringing in my ears, \"Remember the Thirtieth of January!\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Constantine Sult, chapter 1, in The Murder of Linen, [United States]: Brown Paper Publishing, page 1",
          "text": "The lighting in the corridor just dabbles of arcs, afterthoughts, smears. The light a grime that gives him a slight headache. The same type as when it has rained, remained humid, a fetid stale of ozone over everything.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A spattering or sprinkling of a liquid."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-noun-CWN9vj02",
      "links": [
        [
          "spattering",
          "spattering#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "sprinkling",
          "sprinkling#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "liquid",
          "liquid#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1849, Acheta Domestica [pseudonym; L. M. Budgen], “The Gnat.—A Life of Buoyancy.”, in Episodes of Insect Life, London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, King William Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 63",
          "text": "Happily, however, he [the gnat] is born a swimmer and can take his pleasure in his native element, poising himself near its surface head downwards, tail upwards. Why chooses he this strange position? Just for the same reason that we rather prefer, when taking a dabble in the waves, to have our heads above water, for the convenience, namely, of receiving a due supply of air, which the little swimmer in question sucks in through a sort of tube in his tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1865, George Tuthill Borrett, “Cleveland to Chicago”, in Letters from Canada and the United States, London: Printed for private circulation, by J. E. Adlard, Bartholomew Close, →OCLC, page 78",
          "text": "After a dabble in a teaspoonful of water, and a scrape with a bit of an old sack, in a box, which is dignified with the title of \"wash room\"—for the American cars are, as it were, moveable hotels, with every accommodation complete (including what, I think, from a sanitary point of view, had very much better not be there), I took a walk up and down the train, with the rest of my fellow-passengers, and thereby improved my appetite for the breakfast which we were to take at a station down the road.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-noun-G02ZU2kJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "splashing",
          "splashing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "soft",
          "soft"
        ],
        [
          "mud",
          "mud"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 93 6",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc.",
          "word": "chapoteo"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1795, Tate Wilkinson, Samuel Foote, The Wandering Patentee; or, A History of the Yorkshire Theatres, from 1779 to the Present Time: Interspersed with Anecdotes Respecting Most of the Performers in the Three Kingdoms, from 1765 to 1795. … In Four Volumes. To which are Added, Never Published, the Diversions of the Morning, and Foote’s Trial for a Libel on Peter Paragraph. Written by the late Samuel Foote, Esq., volume III, York, Yorkshire: Printed for the author, by Wilson, Spence, and Mawman; sold by G. G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster Row; T[homas] Egerton, Whitehall; and J. Deighton, Holborn, London; and by all the booksellers in the city and county of York, →OCLC, page 235",
          "text": "[…] I was induced to quit Leeds ſooner than uſual, as the concourſe of company which would aſſemble on that occaſion was expected to be very numerous and productive, and of courſe I could not idly let ſlip ſuch a lucrative proſpect but muſt have a dabble for the loaves and fiſhes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1837, [Francis] Bacon, “Introductory Essay”, in The Works of Lord Bacon. With an Introductory Essay, and a Portrait. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: William Ball, Paternoster Row; stereotyped and printed by J. R. and C. Child, Bungay, →OCLC, page xli",
          "text": "From the separate little tracts and fragments which we have last noticed, (as well as the greater works, which contain a fuller development of his views on this subject,) it appears he slighted what has been termed Natural Theology. He was content with the Bible, without which Natural Theology is a dabble of inconclusive presumptions, and in connexion with which, however pleasing as a speculative inquiry, useless as a canon of faith, or a rule of life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1845, Joseph C. Neal, “The Moral of Goslyne Greene, who was Born to a Fortune”, in The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey and Hart, →OCLC, page 68",
          "text": "A dabble in the stocks does not always turn out profitably; cotton is sometimes heavy on our hands, and real estate will sulkily retrograde, when, by the calculation, it ought to have advanced.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way."
      ],
      "id": "en-dabble-en-noun-6XaQPvt9",
      "links": [
        [
          "participation",
          "participation"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 5 95",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way",
          "word": "escarceo"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæb(ə)l/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæbəl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æbəl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg/En-au-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dabble.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg/En-us-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dabble"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English links with manual fragments",
    "English links with redundant alt parameters",
    "English links with redundant wikilinks",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from Middle Dutch",
    "English terms suffixed with -le",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/æbəl",
    "Rhymes:English/æbəl/2 syllables"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "bedabble"
    },
    {
      "word": "dabbler"
    },
    {
      "word": "dabblesome"
    },
    {
      "word": "dabbling"
    },
    {
      "word": "dabbling duck"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dable"
      },
      "expansion": "dable",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "frequentative"
      },
      "expansion": "frequentative",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dab",
        "3": "le",
        "pos2": "frequentative suffix"
      },
      "expansion": "dab + -le (frequentative suffix)",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dum",
        "3": "dabbelen",
        "4": "",
        "5": "to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "is",
        "2": "dafla",
        "3": "",
        "4": "to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dabbles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dabbling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dabbled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dabbled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dabble (third-person singular simple present dabbles, present participle dabbling, simple past and past participle dabbled)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "dab‧ble"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dilettante"
    },
    {
      "word": "dribble"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1783, George Armstrong, “Rules to be Observed in the Nursing of Children: With a Particular View to Those who are Brought Up by Hand”, in An Account of the Diseases Most Incident to Children, from the Birth till the Age of Puberty; with a Successful Method of Treating Them. To which is Added, an Essay on Nursing: With a Particular View to Children who are Brought Up by Hand. Also a Short General Account of the Dispensary for the Infant Poor, new edition, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 176",
          "text": "If ſhe [the nurse] obſerves that the ſkin ſeems any where to be chafed, after dabbling the part very well with cold water, and drying it gently with a fine cloth, let her apply ſome common powder to it, by means of a ſoft puff.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "slightly",
          "slightly"
        ],
        [
          "wet",
          "wet#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "soiled",
          "soiled#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "spattering",
          "spatter#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "sprinkling",
          "sprinkle#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "liquid",
          "liquid#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "mud",
          "mud"
        ],
        [
          "paint",
          "paint#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "bedabble",
          "bedabble"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to bedabble or spatter"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The children sat on the dock and dabbled their feet in the water.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow water; to paddle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "splashing",
          "splashing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "body part",
          "body part"
        ],
        [
          "bill",
          "bill#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "limb",
          "limb"
        ],
        [
          "playfully",
          "playfully"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "shallow",
          "shallow#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "paddle",
          "paddle#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow water; to paddle."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to splash or paddle"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Ornithology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, [Maurice Burton; Robert Burton], “Mallard”, in International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, volumes 11 (LEO–MAR), Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish, page 1525",
          "text": "When a duck dabbles its bill in mud, it is using the lamellae (transverse plates) on the inner edges of its bill as a highly efficient filter. As the duck dabbles, its tongue acts as a piston, sucking water or mud into the mouth and driving it out again. Only the edible particles are left behind on the lamellae.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "feed",
          "feed"
        ],
        [
          "diving",
          "dive"
        ],
        [
          "submerging",
          "submerge"
        ],
        [
          "head",
          "head"
        ],
        [
          "neck",
          "neck"
        ],
        [
          "tip",
          "tip"
        ],
        [
          "tail",
          "tail"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, of waterfowl) To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of waterfowl"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She’s an actress by trade, but has been known to dabble in poetry.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1692 April 4, Richard Bentley, “Matter and Motion Cannot Think: Or, A Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul. The Second Sermon Preached April 4. 1692.”, in The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism Demonstrated from the Advantage and Pleasure of a Religious Life, the Faculties of Humane Souls, the Structure of Animate Bodies, & the Origin and Frame of the World: In Eight Sermons Preached at the Lecture Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire; in the First Year, MDCXCII [1692], 4th corr. edition, London: Printed by J. H. for H. Mortlock at the Phœnix in St. Paul's Church-Yard, published 1699, →OCLC, page 63",
          "text": "And now that I have finiſhed all the parts, which I propoſed to diſcourſe of; I will conclude all with a ſhort application to the Atheiſts. And I would adviſe them as a Friend, to leave off this dabbling and ſmattering in Philoſophy, this ſhuffling and cutting with Atoms.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1793 July, “[Monthly Catalogue, for July, 1793.] Art. 57. Sprigs of Laurel: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts. As Performed, with Universal Applause, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Written by John O’Keeffe. 8vo. 1s. Longman. 1793.”, in [Ralph Griffiths], editor, The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XI, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, in Pall Mall, →OCLC, page 347",
          "text": "The politics too, for it [the opera] dabbles in politics, are evidently not written from the heart, for the ſentiments contradict each other, but from the paultry motive of catching applauſe, be it juſt or unjuſt, moral or immoral.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Paula Marantz Cohen, “Introduction”, in Alfred Hitchcock: The Legacy of Victorianism, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, page 1",
          "text": "His [Alfred Hitchcock's] work is a mirror of cinematic development: from silent to sound, from black and white to color, from the shoestring productions of his early London years to the expensive vehicles of his Hollywood period. In the process, he dabbled in technical innovations such as 3-D and VistaVision, experimened in special effects and editing techniques, and developed an extensive repertoire of original camera setups and shots.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "participate",
          "participate"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, figuratively) To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to participate casually"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1731, Simon Scriblerus [pseudonym], Whistoneutes: Or, Remarks on Mr. [William] Whiston’s Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Samuel Clarke, &c., London: Printed for T. Warner, at the Black-Boy in Pater-Noster-Row, →OCLC, pages 3–4",
          "text": "[A fellow of a college in Cambridge] freely confeſs'd, that he had for many Years been ranſacking Antiquity, in order to be the Author of ſome new Heresy or Opinion; and that after all his Searches, he cou'd think or fix upon nothing, but what on Fool or another had been meddling and dabbling with.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "interfere",
          "interfere"
        ],
        [
          "meddle",
          "meddle#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "tamper",
          "tamper#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, obsolete) To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:to interfere or tamper with"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæb(ə)l/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæbəl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æbəl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg/En-au-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dabble.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg/En-us-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled",
      "word": "bespatter"
    },
    {
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled",
      "word": "besprinkle"
    },
    {
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled",
      "word": "spatter"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "pocákat"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "pošplíchat"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "kastella"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "megnedvesít"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "benedvesít"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "meglocsol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "bespriccel"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "word": "megmártogat"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "babrać"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "ubabrać"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "zbabrać"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "pljaskam",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "пляскам"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "prǎskam",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "пръскам"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "wánshuǐ",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "玩水"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "濺濕"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "jiànshī",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "溅湿"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "cákat"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "šplíchat"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "dompelen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "spetteren"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "pärskiä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "pärskyttää"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "barboter"
    },
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "humedecer"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "platschen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "pancsol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "belepancsol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "pacsál"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "sguazzare"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "bachabacha saseru",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "ばちゃばちゃさせる"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "umedecer"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "pleskátʹsja",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "плеска́ться"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "brčkati"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "chapotear"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "to cause splashing by moving a body part in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "sıçratmak"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving",
      "word": "grondelen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "of waterfowl, to feed with the head underwater without diving",
      "word": "gründeln"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "mesja se",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "меся се"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "bǎrkam se",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "бъркам се"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shèzú",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "涉足"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "涉獵"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shèliè",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "涉猎"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "liefhebberen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "als liefhebberij hebben"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "puuhastella"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "harrastella"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "ein wenig befassen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "dilettieren"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "belekontárkodik"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "beleszagol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "note": "felületesen/amatőr módjára csinál/végez/űz/foglalkozik",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "amatőrködik"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "belekap"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "belekóstol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "-kodik"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "-kedik"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "-ködik"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "-gat"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "-get"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "dilettarsi"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "occuparsi a tempo perso"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "english": "to cheat",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "fuske"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "zanimátʹsja povérxnostno",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "занима́ться пове́рхностно"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "aventurarse en"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "incursionar"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "to participate in a casual or superficial way",
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
      "word": "takılmak"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dabble"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English links with manual fragments",
    "English links with redundant alt parameters",
    "English links with redundant wikilinks",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from Middle Dutch",
    "English terms suffixed with -le",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/æbəl",
    "Rhymes:English/æbəl/2 syllables"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "double dabble"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dable"
      },
      "expansion": "dable",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "frequentative"
      },
      "expansion": "frequentative",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dab",
        "3": "le",
        "pos2": "frequentative suffix"
      },
      "expansion": "dab + -le (frequentative suffix)",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "dum",
        "3": "dabbelen",
        "4": "",
        "5": "to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "is",
        "2": "dafla",
        "3": "",
        "4": "to dabble"
      },
      "expansion": "Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dabbles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dabble (plural dabbles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "dab‧ble"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1858 May 22, “Fine Arts. Royal Academy.”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama, number 1595, London: Printed by James Holmes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane, published at the office, 20, Wellington Street North, Strand, by J[ohn] Francis. [...], →OCLC, page 663, column 3",
          "text": "Sir W. Rose has works that bear painful evidence of failing health; indeed, his group of the Duc et Duchesse d'Aumale (705), with the Prince de Condé and the Duc de Guise, is quite unfinished and even blotted. The face of the Duke is refined, but weak; the colour is pale, and the background only a dabble of unarranged and undrilled touches.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1862 February, George Augustus [Henry] Sala, “The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous; a Narrative in Plain English, […] Chapter the Fourth. My Grandmother Dies, and I am Left Alone, without So Much as a Name.”, in George Augustus Sala, editor, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume IV, London: Office of \"Temple Bar,\" 122 Fleet Street; Ward and Lock, 158 Fleet Street; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers, →OCLC, page 304",
          "text": "And then methought my dream changed, and two Great Giants with heading-axes came striding over the bed, […] And I woke up with my hair all in a dabble with the night-dews, with my Grandmother's voice ringing in my ears, \"Remember the Thirtieth of January!\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Constantine Sult, chapter 1, in The Murder of Linen, [United States]: Brown Paper Publishing, page 1",
          "text": "The lighting in the corridor just dabbles of arcs, afterthoughts, smears. The light a grime that gives him a slight headache. The same type as when it has rained, remained humid, a fetid stale of ozone over everything.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A spattering or sprinkling of a liquid."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "spattering",
          "spattering#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "sprinkling",
          "sprinkling#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "liquid",
          "liquid#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1849, Acheta Domestica [pseudonym; L. M. Budgen], “The Gnat.—A Life of Buoyancy.”, in Episodes of Insect Life, London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, King William Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 63",
          "text": "Happily, however, he [the gnat] is born a swimmer and can take his pleasure in his native element, poising himself near its surface head downwards, tail upwards. Why chooses he this strange position? Just for the same reason that we rather prefer, when taking a dabble in the waves, to have our heads above water, for the convenience, namely, of receiving a due supply of air, which the little swimmer in question sucks in through a sort of tube in his tail.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1865, George Tuthill Borrett, “Cleveland to Chicago”, in Letters from Canada and the United States, London: Printed for private circulation, by J. E. Adlard, Bartholomew Close, →OCLC, page 78",
          "text": "After a dabble in a teaspoonful of water, and a scrape with a bit of an old sack, in a box, which is dignified with the title of \"wash room\"—for the American cars are, as it were, moveable hotels, with every accommodation complete (including what, I think, from a sanitary point of view, had very much better not be there), I took a walk up and down the train, with the rest of my fellow-passengers, and thereby improved my appetite for the breakfast which we were to take at a station down the road.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "splashing",
          "splashing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "soft",
          "soft"
        ],
        [
          "mud",
          "mud"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1795, Tate Wilkinson, Samuel Foote, The Wandering Patentee; or, A History of the Yorkshire Theatres, from 1779 to the Present Time: Interspersed with Anecdotes Respecting Most of the Performers in the Three Kingdoms, from 1765 to 1795. … In Four Volumes. To which are Added, Never Published, the Diversions of the Morning, and Foote’s Trial for a Libel on Peter Paragraph. Written by the late Samuel Foote, Esq., volume III, York, Yorkshire: Printed for the author, by Wilson, Spence, and Mawman; sold by G. G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster Row; T[homas] Egerton, Whitehall; and J. Deighton, Holborn, London; and by all the booksellers in the city and county of York, →OCLC, page 235",
          "text": "[…] I was induced to quit Leeds ſooner than uſual, as the concourſe of company which would aſſemble on that occaſion was expected to be very numerous and productive, and of courſe I could not idly let ſlip ſuch a lucrative proſpect but muſt have a dabble for the loaves and fiſhes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1837, [Francis] Bacon, “Introductory Essay”, in The Works of Lord Bacon. With an Introductory Essay, and a Portrait. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: William Ball, Paternoster Row; stereotyped and printed by J. R. and C. Child, Bungay, →OCLC, page xli",
          "text": "From the separate little tracts and fragments which we have last noticed, (as well as the greater works, which contain a fuller development of his views on this subject,) it appears he slighted what has been termed Natural Theology. He was content with the Bible, without which Natural Theology is a dabble of inconclusive presumptions, and in connexion with which, however pleasing as a speculative inquiry, useless as a canon of faith, or a rule of life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1845, Joseph C. Neal, “The Moral of Goslyne Greene, who was Born to a Fortune”, in The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey and Hart, →OCLC, page 68",
          "text": "A dabble in the stocks does not always turn out profitably; cotton is sometimes heavy on our hands, and real estate will sulkily retrograde, when, by the calculation, it ought to have advanced.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "participation",
          "participation"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæb(ə)l/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdæbəl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æbəl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg/En-au-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/En-au-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dabble.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ae/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-dabble.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg/En-us-dabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-dabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc.",
      "word": "chapoteo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way",
      "word": "escarceo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dabble"
}
{
  "called_from": "translations/609-20230504",
  "msg": "Translation too long compared to word, so it is skipped",
  "path": [
    "dabble"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "verb",
  "title": "dabble",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.